Monkwood House

House. Built around 1580, with alterations in the 17th century. The house is timber-framed and has plaster walls, covered by a roof of handmade red plain tiles. It has four bays facing southeast, with a large chimney stack in the left bay. The house has two storeys. The ground floor has two 20th-century casement windows. The first floor has three 20th-century casement windows. A 20th-century glazed door with a 19th-century gabled canopy supported by brackets is located near the left end. An 18th-century boarded door is in a gabled porch with a shallow slate roof supported on iron stanchions, and scalloped and pierced boarding in the gable, located in the second bay from the right end. The roof is half-hipped at both ends. The construction includes jowled posts, and the interior has curved tension bracing within the heavy studding. A 20th-century grate is set into a large wood-burning hearth which appears to be original. The original floor structure includes a chamfered binding beam with lamb's tongue stops on hewn ledges, along with plain joists with soffit tenons and diminished haunches. There is a trimmed stair trap at the rear of the right bay, partially occupied by the existing winder stair. Chisel-cut carpenters’ assembly marks are visible on the partition studs. Behind the house, on the ground floor, there is one complete unglazed window with four diamond mullions and a shutter groove. Shutter grooves are also visible on other unglazed windows in the right tiebeam and rear wallplate. Originally, the left bay was a single storey with a lean-to roof; the shorter jowled post at the front left corner is visible, with another possibly present but concealed, and the lower plate there. The walls have been raised to two storeys with unjowled posts and a higher tiebeam, and a floor has been inserted consisting of a chamfered axial beam and plain joists with soffit tenons and diminished haunches; this reflects later 17th-century carpentry. The roof was rebuilt in the 18th century, with hardwood rafters of vertical section, side purlins clasped on nailed collars, and a ridge board. The internal doors are battened with half-lapped boards, dating to the 18th century or earlier. The building has hardwood floorboards. The house has remained exceptionally unaltered, aside from the alterations noted.